2. Wucha
烏秅
[Wu-ch’a]. This name is given as
Wuhao
烏耗[Wu-hao]
in the Shanghai (1888) edition which Chavannes used. The character: 耗hao
(or mao)
– ‘to diminish’; ‘news’; ‘to consume’, ‘to dispense’ – is almost certainly a
copyist’s error for the very similar-looking cha 秅used in the
Shanghai Zhonghua Shuju (1965) edition of the Hou Hanshu, the Hanshu, the
Shuijingzhu and other texts, as Chavannes first pointed
out:

“The
commentary of 676 indicates that, according to the Qianshuyinyi [Ch’ien-shu-yin-i], this name ought to be
pronounced Yanna鷃拏,
but that, according to another gloss, the word 烏
is pronounced as a combination of yi一
and jia加(thus ya), while the word 耗
is pronounced as a combination of zhi
直
and jia 加(thus cha). The commentator moreover
reconciles these two different explanations by saying that if one rapidly
pronounces the sounds indicated in the second gloss, one ends up with the sounds
indicated by the first. – We will remark that in the Qian Hanshu (chap. XCVI, n, p. 4a), the
name of this kingdom is spelled Wucha烏秅,
the written form found in the Beishi
(chap. XCVII, p. 3b), which, besides, is a little closer to the aforementioned
second gloss which indicates the sound cha. We must therefore admit that the
reading Wucha is closer to the true
pronunciation of this placename than the reading Wuhao. Finally, this is best it seems
[as] the same name is written Wusha烏鎩
by Xuanzang.” Translated and adapted from Chavannes (1907), p.
175, n. 3.

See also the
discussion by Petech (1950), pp. 68-69. The Hanshu
(CICA, pp. 101, 103, 104) says Wucha is south of Puli (Tashkurghan),
south-west of Xiye (Karghalik), adjoins Wulei (Sarhad) to its south, and Nandou
(the Chitral/Kunar Valley) to its west, and says (ibid. p. 97) that it is
1,340 li (557 km) southwest of Pishan, and comes just before Xiandu
縣度(the
‘Hanging Passages’ = Hunza/Gilgit) on the way to Jibin.An examination of the map will show that Wucha may, with some confidence,
be located near modern Ghujak Bai (Aijie Keboyi), at the junction of the Mintaka
and Tashkurgan Rivers, about 70 km south of Tashkurgan.The Hanshu (CICA, p. 98) when it says that Wucha adjoins
Zihe (Shahidullah) and Puli (Tashkurghan) in the north. This may be explained by
the confusion in the Hanshu of Zihe (Shahidullah) and Xiye (Karghalik),
as the Hou Hanshu (see the end of Section 5) makes clear. Karghalik is
actually northeast of Wucha or Ghujak Bai. It could also indicate that they were
under the control of a single ruler during the time of the Former Han, but his
command of the southern route to Shahidullah had been lost by the time of the
Later Han.From Ghujak Bai the main route headed some 80 km southwest over the
Mustagh Pass (5,827 m. or 19,117 ft). This pass used to be used until recent
centuries but the advance of glacier ice has forced people to use the so-called
“New Mustagh Pass” (5,800 m. or 19,029 ft.), about 16 km further west; but this
is also heavily glaciated and difficult. The alternative is to head another 30
km or so west over the far easier and lower Kilik Pass (4,827 m. or 15,837 ft.)
into the upper reaches of the Hunza Valley.

Notes on the
Mustagh Pass adapted from Merzliakova (2003): “Height = 5706 m” [17, 720 ft.].“The Pass lies in Muztag range, in Karakorum
Mountains. “The Pass lies over the main axis of the Himalayas, and divides the
Chinese dominions from the British dependencies. It is also on the watershed
between the rivers which flow into the Indian Ocean and those which flow towards
Turkestan....” “One of the highest and most difficult in the Himalayas.” “The Pass was in use in former days, till the
advance of the ice upon it made it difficult that a new one was sought for, and
what is known as the New Muztagh Pass, some ten miles further west along the
range.”

Notes on New Mustagh Pass from Merzliakova:
“Height =5800 m [19,029 ft].” “The Pass is
glaciated. It lies at the head of the Chiring glacier. An ancient route to
Central Asia went here. The discovery that Chiring is a surging glacier
gives a new slant to an old debate about the role of glacier fluctuations in
historic closings of this and other glacier passes to Inner Asia [summarized by
Shipton, 1938]. Maps, drawings, and photographs from 1856, 1861, 1929 and 1937
show the lower Chiring was easily crossed by travelers [Godwin-Austen, 1864;
Desio, 1929; Shipton, 1938; and Kick, 1993]. Although altitude and bad weather
posed problems, the upper glacier also offered a relatively straightforward
traverse to the Pass. However, in 1887 a British explorer, Francis Younghusband,
coming from the Chinese side, found the Pass closed. After crossing by another
route, he attempted to ascend the Chiring but found it impassable because of
"... an immense ice-slip on to the glacier and gigantic blocks of ice... tumbled
about on top of one another..." [Younghusband, 1896, 205B6]. His descriptions
accord with the effects of a surge and strongly suggest that the Chiring last
surged in 1885-87, giving a surge cycle of about 110 years.” “Ancient route to
Central Asia went there. When the Pass was discovered, it became more usable
than the more difficult Muztagh Pass.”

Notes on the
Kilik Pass adapted from Merzliakova (2003): “Height = 4877 m [16,001 ft], or 4827 m
[15,837 ft].”"The Pass leads to the Pamir
plateau." The ancient trade routes, a part of the famous “Silk Route”, went
here. [In the 19th century]:
Diplomatic mail runners used this Pass. At present: “Near the Pass there are
herds of grazing yaks and dzos (cross between a yak and a domestic cow).”“Misgar villagers in China have divided the route
to the Mintaka Pass into 4 ‘stages’. At the 2 stage from Misgar to Murkushi the
routes to Kilik and Minataka divide. Misgar, the chief town in the previously
off-limits valley of the same name, was the last outpost of the British empire
in the colonial era, and the point from which mail runners left to carry the
diplomatic dispatches over the Kilik Pass to the British envoy in Chinese
Kashgar. In 1894 George Nathaniel Curzon paid a visit to Baltit, and then,
accompanied by the Mir, continued on up to the top of the Kilik Pass on the
Tagh-Dumbash Pamir. It is on record that, after taking the elevation at the
summit of the Pass and finding it to be 15870 feet, he sat down on a rock and
wrote a letter to “The Times.”

“The Kilik pass is wide and gentle
- actually a huge grassy alp. The trails are broad, easy to follow, and probably
the easiest trails in all Northern Pakistan.” This note was written by John Mock
and Kimberley O’Neil on: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/himalayanet/message/11.
Downloaded on 25 April 2003. Note: It is marked as being 15,837 ft [4858 m] on
my “Road Map of Pakistan,” 1st edition (1975).

The route then headed south and west across the terrifying xiandu
or ‘Hanging Passages’ – the rickety pathways constructed along the cliff-faces
on the way to Gilgit. The main, and relatively easy, route from Gilgit headed
down the Chitral Valley to Swat and Gandhara in Northern Pakistan or on to the
region of modern Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan; another route led to
Kashmir.Ghujak Bai also controlled the route south to the alternate Kunjerab Pass
(4,700 m or 15,420 ft) to Hunza, which is the route taken by the modern
Karakoram Highway. To the southeast of Ghujak Bai there is also a route
connecting it with Mazar and Shahidullah (see notes 5.1 and 6.1 above).

3. Xuandu
縣度[Hsüan-tu, often incorrectly given as Hsien-tu], from: 縣度xuan= ‘to
suspend”, ‘hang’, ‘dangerous’ + 度du
= GR 11640a: “7. – To cross (the water by ferry). To cross (over)].”
From this we get the infamous, ‘Hanging Passages’ – the narrow and
dangerous hanging footpaths of the Hunza region. It is significant that Xuandu is not listed as a guo (= ‘kingdom’
or ‘country’) in any of the ancient Chinese texts. It is clearly described as a
locality, not a state. The name translates literally as ‘Hanging Passages,’ and
it has long been recognised that it refers to the terrifying hanging pathways,
locally known as rafiks, which are so characteristic of the route through
the Hunza valley to Gilgit. The most difficult passage in the whole Hunza valley
is the section south of the junction of the Misgar and the Hunza rivers. See,
for example, Chavannes (1905), p. 529, n. 5.Although it was impossible to take pack animals over this route, a route
barely practicable for people on foot, it was by far the shortest route from the
Tarim Basin to Gandhara and Jibin in what are now northern Pakistan and
southeastern Afghanistan. The Hanshu describes Xiandu as follows:

“What is
termed the Suspended Crossing is a rocky mountain; the valley is impenetrable,
and people traverse the place by pulling each other across with ropes.”
CICA, pp. 99 and n. 169, 100.

The
following descriptions will illustrate why this route was so feared:

“Surrounded
thus by granite precipices and huge wastes of ice and snow, affording only a
hazardous passage during a few summer months into the neighbouring countries,
Hunza-Nagar has but one vulnerable point on the southern part of the Hindoo
Koosh, the ravine of the Kanjut River; while the junction of that torrent with
the Gilgit River is the one gateway of the country assailable for an invading
force. Even this entrance is practically closed during the summer months; for
then the river, swollen by the melting snows, becomes an unfordable and raging
torrent, overflowing the whole bottom of the valley at many points, so that the
only way left by which one can ascend the gorge is a rough track high up upon
the cliff-side, carried along narrow ledges, and overhanging frightful
precipices – a road fit only for goats and cragsmen, which could be easily held
by a handful of determined men against a large force; while at this season the
river can only be crossed by means of the frail twig-rope bridges, which will
support but two or three men, and can be cut adrift with a knife in a few
moments. Such is the road
into Hunza-Nagar from our side; but at the head of the Kanjut Valley there is a
group of comparatively easy and low passes, leading across the Hindoo Koosh on
to the Tagdambash Pamir, in Chinese territory, which are used by the Kanjuts on
their raiding expeditions....” Knight (1893), pp. 345-346.

“As one
ascends the valley beyond Hunza.... It is only at certain points, where passage
along the cliffs would otherwise be absolutely impossible for the best cragsmen,
that any steps have been taken to open a road, and then it is but the narrowest
scaffolding thrown from ledge to ledge. One comes upon position after position
of immense natural strength in this gorge, where the dangerous and only path
passes under stout sangas, which could be held by a handful of men
against a host. Even as the Kanjuts had left the approaches to their valley
below Nilt as difficult of access as possible, so had they done here, at the
outlet of their country on to the Pamirs, rendering it almost impossible for an
enemy to invade them from either direction.” Ibid. pp. 488-489.

“Rafiks, the local name for such galleries, are fastened to the
sheer cliffs by branches of trees forced into the fissures of the rock and
covered with small stones. Elsewhere natural narrow ledges are widened by flat
slabs packed over them. In some places the rafiks “turn in sharp zigzags on the
side of cliffs where a false step would prove fatal, while at others again they
are steep enough to resemble ladders. To carry loads along these galleries is
difficult enough, and . . . for ponies, sure-footed as they are, wholly
impassable.” Even his [Aurel Stein’s] terrier, Yolchi Beg, so nimble on the
rocks of Mohand Marg, was fearful and allowed himself the indignity of being
carried. Rafiks alternated “with passages over shingly slopes and climbs over
rock-strewn wastes.” To negotiate this terrain, the “baggage animals were left
behind [at Chalt] and coolies taken for the rest of the journey up to the
Taghdumbash Pamir.” Mirsky (1977). p. 121.

“The next day’s march [from
Khudabad] to Misgar, he had been warned, would be the worst part of the route.
By starting before dawn while the river was still low enough to ford, he avoided
a long detour and a perilous crossing on a rope bridge. Then the going reached a
climax of “scramble up precipitous faces of slatey rocks . . . with still more
trying descents to the riverbed”; slower still was the progress along rafiks
clinging to cliffs hundreds of feet above the river. But the previous five days
had toughened him, and he felt fresh when he emerged from the rocky gorge to an
open valley.... Here he discharged the “hardy hillmen who had carried our
impedimenta over such trying ground without the slightest damage.” Beyond, the
route was open to baggage animals at all seasons.” Mirsky (1977), p. 125.

The Kushans
appear to have controlled the whole region from the late 1st century, and for
most (or all) of the 2nd century CE.
There is a brief mention in Ban Chao’s biography that, “(Ban) Chao then crossed
the Congling and got as far as Xiandu.” Although this must have occurred
sometime in the late 1st century, there is no indication of the specific date,
or any other details. One can only assume that the reference was to a brief
foray of little on-going consequence or, perhaps, a meeting with Kushan
envoys.Xiandu (‘the Hanging Passages’) formed a natural frontier between the
Indian subcontinent and the territories of Central Asia. Indeed, the
Weilue notes that after crossing the Xiandu one entered the territory of
the Da Yuezhi who were in control of northern India at the time. From Xiandu
(Hunza/Gilgit) there were four main routes one could take:

1.
south along the Astor river and across the Burzil Pass into Kashmir,

Notes on
Burzil Pass adapted from: Merzliakova (2003): “Height = 3200 m [10,499 ft] , or 4500 m [14,764 ft],
or 5000 m [16, 464 ft].” “The crest of the Pass is wide and covered in summer
with alpine grass vegetation.” “The Pass was practicable for horses and
ponies.””It is covered with snow from 20th of October….” “The trade routes
split in Skardu with one leading to Satpara over the Deosai and Burzil Pass into
Srinagar (Kashmir) and another leading to Gol. The first one named Gilgit route
was active up to Pakistan's independence. The travelers used horses and ponies.
It was the oldest route connecting Gilgit with Srinagar via Burzil Pass and
Skardu through Chotta Deosai and Sadpara. On the beginning of XX century a hut
of post courier was situated on the crest of the Pass. He brought mail from
India to China. After Pakistan's independence, the accessibility to Northern
Areas was improved as a jeepable link with Rawalpindi was developed through
Kaghan Valley and Chilas by army engineers. This track linking Gilgit and Skardu
was developed in the mid-fifties and it was shorter. The importance of the Pass
came down.” “There are no vegetation around the Pass and much
snow.”

Author’s note: It is marked as being 13,775
ft [4,199 m] on my “Road Map of Pakistan,” 1st edition
(1975).

2.
a difficult route along the Indus River Valley to Taxila, rarely used in ancient
times. It roughly corresponds to the route taken by the modern Karakoram highway

3. through the Swat Valley to Gandhara and Peshawar or,

4. the easiest route of all, whenever it is politically feasible,
which leads via the Chitral valley directly to the region of modern Jalalabad
(Jibin), and on to Kandahar (Wuyi) or Kabul (Gaofu).

4. Jibin
罽賓[Chi-pin]
= Kapisha-Peshawar. See note 13.14 below.

5.
Wuyishanli 烏弋山離[Wu-i-shan-li].
Wuyishanli (shortened to Wuyi in the Weilue) is almost certainly a
transliteration of Alexandria and, according to most authorities, stands here
for Kandahar, one of the many Alexandrias established by Alexander the Great,
and the chief city of the province of Arachosia. See the discussions in Daffinà
(1982), p 319; Chavannes (1905): 555, n. 6; Pelliot (1959), p. 29; Pulleyblank
(1963), pp. 116, 128; and CICA, p. 112, n. 250.Alexandria-in-Arachosia or Alexandropolis, from which the modern name
of Kandahar is derived, was founded in the spring of 329 BCE.

“Arachosia, Persian HARAUVATISH
or HARAHVATISH,
in ancient times a province of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian empires.
It occupied southern Afghanistan and was bounded on the south by Gedrosia
(Baluchistan). The capital city, Alexandria-of-the Arachosians, was founded by
Alexander the Great and is usually identified with Qandahār. Arachosia was
famous for its ivory and elephants.” NEB, I, p. 471.

Yu (1998), pp. 168-169, however, suggests that it more likely referred to
both Arachosia and Drangiana (modern Seistan), to the west. I agree with him on
the grounds that the descriptions in both the Hanshu and the Hou Hanshu mention only one state
between Jibin to the northeast and Tiaozhi and Lijian to the west. Also, we know that they were closely associated from early times, forming
two adjoining provinces of the Achaeamid empire, and later, in the time of Aśoka
and the Seleucid king, Antiochus II that “it is clear that the two kingdoms were
then contiguous with a frontier west of Kandahar….” Sherwin-White and Kuhrt , p.
80.Yu (p. 169) goes on to propose that Wuyishanli probably referred to
Alexandria Prophthasia (Farāh), south of Herat. However, I feel that his
arguments could equally be applied to Kandahar:

1). that it
is hot, covered in vegetation and flat,

2). That it
was cut off and remote and Han envoys only reached there rarely and it was the
extreme point of the Southern Route

And, as
Kandahar has for long been the larger and more prosperous region, and famous as
one of the few places where elephants could be bred and raised successfully in
captivity (meaning it was the coveted production area of the ancient equivalent
of tanks), I am inclined to accept, along with most other authorities that
Wuyishanli here referred primarily to Arachosia, a kingdom centred on Kandahar.

“Arachosia
(Old Persian harahuvati, corresponding to Sanskrit sarasvati ‘rich
in rivers’) was the well-named land of present southern Afghanistan, the valley
of the Upper Helmand (Avestan Ha’tumant ‘rich in dams’) and the
tributaries where the Thamani (Herodotus III.93, 117) lived..., the people of
Arachosia must have been settled agriculturalists from an early time in this
fertile land comparable to Bactria in the north. Similar to Bactria in the
north, Arachosia was the centre of Achaemenid rule over neighbouring tribes to
the south and east and Darius was fortunate to have a loyal satrap who, after a
number of battles with the rebels sent against him from the west, was able to
consolidate the rule of the new king.The lower course of the Helmand
river and the Hamun lake was occupied by the Zrangi (Old Persian
Z(a)ra(n)ka, with local zB for Old Persian d-), which name
has been explained as ‘sea land’ by many scholars, unsuccessfully, I believe.
The name survived into Islamic times as Zarang, the capital of the country. The
Hamun lake area played an important role in Zoroastrian tradition and as the
homeland of the hero Rustam. By geography and history it has been connected with
Arachosia and the upper Helmand rather than with Fars province or the west. The
invasion of Saka tribes in the second and first centuries before our era
undoubtedly changed the population for their name was applied to the land which
has held to this day, Seistan. In pre-Achaemenid times as today it is a land
where the steppe and sown are intermingled and nomads are on all sides of the
lake which is large in winter while almost vanishing in the late summer.” Frye
(1963), pp. 71-72.

Pavel Lurje
of the Department of Ancient Near East, St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute
of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, kindly wrote on 18 May 2002
informing me that the form Ha’tumant in the above quotation is incorrect:
“Avestic Haetumant-, (Greek Etymandres), not Ha’tumant. The Kandahar inscription
of Ashoka seems to be not in Aramaic language, but some local Iranian or Indian
language in Aramaic script ….”The rich agricultural lands along the Helmund River centred on Kandahar
have, since ancient times, formed an essential link and staging post on the
shortest and easiest routes between Persia and India. From northern Parthia one
travelled to Herat and then on to Kandahar. From southern Parthia the route
travelled through Persepolis to Kandahar. The Persian name for the city was
Kapisakaiš but it was renamed Alexandria after Alexander’s visit in
329
BCE and the
present name, Kandahar, is ultimately derived from Alexandria The city of Kandahar itself is located on the Tarnak River, one of the
tributaries of the Helmand has, since early times, been a major centre of trade.
The ancient city, which was sacked by Nadir Shah in 1738 was located about 6 km
west of the present city and was the capital of the whole region since
Achaemenid times. It was famous for its elephants which thrived in the hot and
humid conditions (see below). Its’ pomegranates, melons and grapes are still
deservedly famous throughout Afghanistan. There is also an abandoned gold mine
about 3 km north of the city that may have had some importance in
antiquity.It appears that the Kushans never conquered this region and it remained
under a series of semi-autonomous or autonomous Parthian rulers until the
arrival of the Sasanians about 240 CE.
See: Simonetta (1978), p. 186.

“Alexander moved on swiftly to
Kandahar [from the west] to Kandahar, where he founded [or, rather, renamed!]
another town, Alexandria in Arachosia (the part of Baluchistan which lies behind
the Quetta Hills). Again, this has been a strategic site throughout Afghan
history, and Kandahar has been occupied from then till now. In the old citadel,
a temple to the deified Alexander has been discovered, along with an inscription
in Greek and Aramaic by the Indian emperor Ashoka who lived a few decades after
Alexander. (This is a place where the Indian and West Asian culture zones have
always overlapped.) In the bazaar in the old town, the hakims (traditional
doctors) claim descent from the doctors who went with Alexander – descendants of
the physicians Philip and Critobulos. They still practise the Yunnani (Greek)
herbal medicine which can be found right across Pakistan and North India.” Wood
(1997), p. 136.

From Kandahar there were two main routes to the Indian subcontinent. One
route ran northeastupstream along
the Tarnak River past modern Ghazni to Kabul and, from there, through the Khyber
Pass (1,067 m or 3,500 ft) into the Gandharan plains of northern Pakistan. The
other ran southeast, via the relatively easy Khojak (2,707 m or 8,881 ft) and
Bolan (1,798 m or 5,899 ft) passes, to the lower Indus River, in what is now
southern Pakistan. All three passes are open all year.

A1552 –
“Those who go from Persia, from the kingdom of Horaçam (Khoraṣan), from Bohára,
and all the Western Regions, travel to the city which the natives corruptly call
Candar, instead of Scandar, the name by which the Persians call Alexander....” –
Barros, IV, vi. 1.” Yule and Burnell (1886), p. 154.

“A Persian army was
reported to be massing for an attack on Herat in western Afghanistan [in 1836].
Encouraged, partly financed and probably officered by Russians, it looked as if
the hour of reckoning might already be nigh. Herat could not be expected to hold
out for long and, as Burnes knew only too well from his strategic studies, once
Herat fell the easiest of approaches to India, that via Kandahar, would lie
right open.” Keay (1977), pp. 142-143.

“Zaranj-Kandahar-Ghazni
Route: The other important route from Zaranj [in the Helmand basin in Seistan]
was the famous Kandahar route which still plays an important role in the
political and economic system of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. The main
stages on this route were Bust Banjaway and Ghazni. This route went through the
Garmsil region, that is, Zanbuk, Sanizan and Haruri on the left bank of the
river Khwash. Between Haruri and Bust it crossed a desert. Between Bust and
Banjaway of Rukhaj it crossed two tributaries of the Helmand namely the
Arghandab and the Tarnak and reached Ghazni which was situated to the northeast
of Banjaway.” Verma (1978), pp. 46-47.

Here is the
account of the Hanshu on the Kingdom of Wuyishanli:

“The seat of
the king’s government is at . . . [the text seems to be defective here] and it
is distant by 12,200 li [5,073 km] from Ch’ang-an. It is not subject to
the protector general . . . [There are many] households, individuals and persons
able to bear arms, and it is a large state. To the north-east it is a distance
of 60 days’ journey to the seat of the protector general. It adjoins Chi-pin in
the east, P’u-t’ao in the north, and Li-kan and T’iao-chih in the west ; after
travelling for some one hundred days one then reaches T’iao-chih.. [a passage on
Tiaozhi (T’iao-chih) is inserted here in the Chinese text – in the middle of the
section on Wuyi]. The land
of Wu-i is very hot ; it is covered in vegetation and flat. For matters such as
grass, trees, stock-animals, the five field crops, fruit, vegetables, food and
drink, buildings, market-stalls, coinage, weapons, gold and pearls, [conditions]
are identical with those of Chi-pin, but there are antelope, lion and
rhinoceros. The way of
life is such that a serious view is taken of arbitrary murder. The obverse of
the coins shows only a human head with a rider on horseback on the reverse.
Their staves are embellished with gold and silver. [The state] is cut off and remote
and Han envoys reach it only rarely. Proceeding by the Southern Route from the
Yü-men and the Yang barriers, and travelling south through Shan-shan one reaches
Wu-i-shan-li, which is the extreme point of the Southern Route; and turning
north and then proceeding eastward one arrives at An-hsi.” CICA, pp.
112-113.

This description of the region of Kandahar (Arachosia) seems reasonably
accurate. Certainly it is hot and fertile. The mention of pearls is presumably a
reference an active trade in pearls,
though it is not clear whether they originated in the Persian Gulf or in Indian
waters. (They are
also mentioned in the account on Jibin – which was even further
inland).The reference to the “serious view taken of arbitrary murder” is perhaps
reflective of the influence of Buddhism. The early arrival of Buddhist ideals in
the region is confirmed by a bilingual inscription (in both Greek and Aramaic)
by Ashoka (died c. 238 BCE)
which advocates a vegetarian diet and the avoidance of, or at least restraint
in, the hunting and killing of animals.I have been unable to find references to coins from Kandahar with the
portrait of the king on one side and a horseman on the other, but the coinage of
the area is poorly known. Certainly silver coins that would fit this description
were issued by Eucratides I (c. 170-145 BCE)
– probably from Taxila, and by the late 1st century CE
Kushan monarch now known as Wima Taktu or Soter Megas, apparently issued from
Balkh and/or Kapisha. So, it is quite possible that similar coins were
circulating in, or were issued from, Kandahar during the time of the informant
for the Hanshu.The reference to lions and rhinoceros in the Hanshu is accurate.
Lions were found in southeastern Iran until recent times. Rhinoceros, though now
extinct in the region, were still being hunted in the Afridi hills northeast of
Kandahar in the sixteenth century:

“c. 1555. –
“We came to the city of Purshawar, and having thus fortunately passed the
Kotal we reached the town of Joshāya. On the
Kotal we saw rhinoceroses, the size of a small elephant.” – Sidi ‘Ali, in
J. As. Ser. 1. tom. ix. 201.” Yule and Burnell (1886), p. 700.

“1519. – “After sending on the army towards the river (the Indus), I
myself set off for Sawâti, which they likewise call Karnak-Khaneh
(kark-khâna, ‘the rhinoceros-haunt’), to hunt the rhinoceros. We started
many rhinoceroses, but as the country abounds in brushwood, we could not get at
them. A she rhinoceros, that had whelps, came out, and fled along the plain;
many arrows were shot at her, but... she gained cover. We set fire to the
brushwood, but the rhinoceros was not to be found. We got sight of another,
that, having been scorched in the fire, was lamed and unable to run. We killed
it, and everyone cut off a bit as a trophy of the chase.” – Baber, 253.” Quoted
from Baber in: Yule and Burnell (1886), p. 762. Also see Chandra (1977),
p. 9.

The so-called “antelope” is discussed at some length by Hulsewé and Loewe
on page 114, n. 262. Unfortunately, they seem to have made a mistake with the
Chinese and rendered it tiaoba挑拔
[t’iao-pa] – first character GSR
1145o, instead of taoba桃拔
[t’ao-pa] – first character GSR
1145u. In any case,
the important thing is that they point out that it was said to be another name
for the fuba, a specimen of which was sent as a present to Emperor Zhang
in 87 CE
by the king of Parthia. This was most probably the Persian or Goitered Gazelle –
Gazella subgutterosa. See note 10.5 below.Kandahar and the associated district of Arachosia was not only of great
importance because of its fertility in an otherwise barren region and its
strategic position in controlling the main southern route between India and
Persia. It also provided the hot and steamy conditions and abundant fodder
needed for the breeding and raising of herds of war elephants along the Helmand
River to the west of Kandahar.

“Suitable
sites for elephant-parks are rare in both Syria and Afghanistan. And the
Seleucids’ war-elephants, like the Ghaznavids,’ were sinews of war in the
literal sense. In discussing Ashoka’s inscription at Qandahar, I have recalled
that the first Seleucus ceded all his provinces west of Qandahar and south of
the Hindu Kush to Chandragupta Maurya in exchange for 500 of the Indian
emperor’s elephants; and the price in terms of ceded territory turned out not to
be excessive from Seleucus’s point of view. Those 500 elephants were trumps.
They won him his victory over his rival Antigonus ‘One-Eye.’ In fact, they won
him his empire. No wonder that he and his successors took trouble to provide
their elephants with congenial accommodation.” Toynbee
(1961), p. 72.

6. Paizhi
排持
[P’ai-chih] or
Paite 排特[P’ai-t’e].
This may have been a
transcription of some foreign name, but the reconstructed ancient pronunciations
do not resemble any name known from other sources and neither of the characters
in it are commonly used to transcribe foreign sounds. According to K. 579x +
961p, 排持 should have been pronounced something like:
*b’εr-dəg. See CICA, p. 112, n. 250. Yu
(1998), p. 168, however, suggests:

“In the Houhanshu, ch. 88, it is recorded: “[The
state of Wuyishanli, which] covers several thousand li 里, has changed its name
into Paite排特.” Similarly, the “Xirongzhuan” of the Weilue records that “Wuyi’s other name
is Paichi” (持
is noted mistakenly as 持 in the original
text). “Pai-te” [buəi-dək] can be
read as a short transcription of “Prophthasia”.

However, I am not
sure from which edition of the Hou
Hanshu Yu got the form of the name: 排特Paite, although it is known in other
sources:

“This information [i.e. 排持 as an alternate
name for Wuyi(shanli)] is found again in the Hou Hanshu (chap. CXVIII, p. 4b). The
edition of the Sanguozhi, said to be
of the Northern Song gives the reading Paite排特 (critical notes of Qianlong).” Translated and adapted from
Chavannes (1905), p. 555, n. 7.

The Shanghai edition of 1888 which
Chavannes used; the Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, Min guo 25 [1936] edition, and the
Shanghai Zhonghua Shuju 1965 edition (reprint 1973), all have the same form:
排持Paichi, which is also found in the Weilue. This form does not suggest the
reconstruction of the name “Prophthasia.”

Another suggestion has been that排持Paichi might have been a “slip of the pen” for
塞持Saichi (literally: “Governed by the Sai/Saka”).
However, I consider this unlikely, as the characters for Pai排and Sai塞not only look so different, but
the reconstructed ancient pronunciations are also quite dissimilar, and unlikely
to have been confused.

It is possible that the name should be considered literally. The
character pai 排 (GR 8449) can have the meaning of
‘shield’ or ‘platoon(s), and chi 持(GR 1872) means ‘to take in hand’, ‘to
govern’, ‘maintain’, or ‘guard with firmness’. I suspect that this literal
translation of the name is possibly the explanation for the name Paichi,
and could possibly have represented something like “Guarded or governed by
platoons”, or “Military Post”, being somewhat similar to the English military
term, “Cantonment”.